Two dozen more Trump ethics waivers to be released

The Office of Government Ethics (OGE) is reportedly set to release copies of roughly two dozen ethics waivers for federal officials next week, showing which officials are focusing on issues that they worked on in their private sector jobs.

The waivers are in addition to the ones the Trump administration released this week, The Wall Street Journal reports. The White House released those ethics pledge waivers Wednesday, exempting at least a dozen White House officials.

The government ethics office has gotten responses to its waiver requests from 135 of 136 agencies so far, the Journal reports. The requests were issued in part to ensure Trump administration officials were abiding by federal ethics rules.

The rules include Trump’s January executive order that required appointees who were past lobbyists, to remove themselves from lobbying activities for two years after they were appointed.

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OGE has also promised it will look into a series of undated ethics waivers that were released by the Trump administration this week and which allow White House staff to interact with former clients and employers.

Senior White House adviser Stephen Bannon may have been retroactively been given permission to interact with his former media organization, Breitbart.

Trump had mandated an ethics pledge that would keep Bannon from participating in Breitbart-related activities. If, in fact, the waiver was granted after an ethics complaint took aim at Bannon’s discussions with Breitbart editors, the White House could be in violation of federal ethics rules.